But I didn’t have time to clean up!

So, you know when your dinner guests show up at your doorstep when you’re still cooking dinner, and dishes are pilling up everywhere and you didn’t have time to make the bed or put away all the dirty socks in the living room? Yeah… Turns out I’m hosting Carnival of the Green on Monday, and this blog is a mess!

So anyway, if you have an environmental themed post this week you’d like to show off, send me a link and short summary until Sunday. You can use my contact form or email carnivalofthegreen at gmail. Please to include the words “Carnival submission” in the subject line.

Oh and you just HAVE to watch this video, it’s hilarious… in a creepy, disturbing-because-it’s-true kind of way. Other than my weekly Friday Linkfest, that’s the extent of my posts on Celsias this month. I know, color me pathetic.

Another reason to eat organic

There is a very good multi–part article about GMOs on Celsias, which I strongly advise you to read. It explains very well what GMOs are and why you should be afraid of them. I’ve been freaking about it, since I’ll be visiting the US myself pretty soon.

For my part, there ain’t no way I’m eating that shit. Which, here in Europe is no problem because of mandatory labeling. Now, for those of you who live in the US, that’s not exactly so.Your government decided that you have no right to refuse to eat GMOs, even if you wish to do so.

Since 1/2 of all soy, and 1/3 of all corn in the US is genetically modified, and those two are in everything, you can bet your treehugging ass you’re eating it, whether you like it or not.

So, if I were you, I would stick to organic cereal, organic tofu, and if you must eat processed food, stick to the organic versions. Because the organic standard is the only guarantee you have today that you are not eating GMOs.

And keep in mind that corn is most frequently found as HFCS (which you should avoid on its own, because its nasty), and soy, besides obvious things like tofu, soy milk and soy sauce, and in less obvious things like chocolate, baked goods and all kinds of processed food.

And of course, soy and corn are pretty much the bulk of industrial animal feed these days, but I know ya’ll are either vegetarian or eat organic meat only, so thats not an issue. Right? RIGHT?

So go on and read John Robbins’ articles, Part I and Part II and decide for yourself.

The hand that rocks the Cradle to Cradle

Welcome back ClosetReaders, and please excuse me for the punny title… it was just too much to resist. I know its been a long time, but once again I will throw myself at your feet and beg for your indulgence. Oh Gods of Blogdom, please accept this post as my humble offering to thee.

So anyway. Exactly 2 weeks ago I went to the Cradle to Cradle conference in Maastricht making use of my press privileges (true story). Believe it or not, I have press privileges, which basically means I get to go for free and have the undisputed right to harass anyone (which I did). Haha, suckas!

You can read my official version of the events at Celsias (which also came out today, in case you think I’m, like, holding out on you or something). So if you read that, you will know that Michael Braungart was presenting. I got to harass him too, with my annoying little “practical” questions and poorly thought through opinions. He’s a good sport though, fun to harass.

As this here is the unofficial version of the events, I might as well tell you that greenwash is everywhere and this was no exception (You know who you are, Mr. Greenport Shanghai).

In other news, it was at this conference that I ate my first piece of meat in over one month. It was organic chicken, if you are wondering. It was tasty. *sigh*

And now, to conclude is style, I’ll share with you the wonderful things I learned at this conference:

• Mattel is the evil.
• If possible, industrial composting is preferable to home composting.
• And composting paper tissues and napkins and what not is probably a bad idea because of chlorine and dioxins.
• You can take the girl out of engineering school but you can’t take the engineer out of the girl. Metaphors are lost on this one.
• The only reason people go to conferences is to pull the ember to their sardine (don’t you just love Portuguese expressions?)
• Law of networking: the amount of asses you need to kiss is inversely proportional to your position in the food chain. (as you can imagine student bloggers rank pretty low there)
• Inversely, your position in the food chain is directly proportional to the amount of people standing in line to kiss your ass (Braungart=long line)
• If you don’t have business cards because you’re a (broke) small fish, at least pretend like its on purpose. Write your name on a pretty piece of cardboard and say that’s for environmental reasons. Not that I know anyone who would do this *whistles and looks around*
• If you want to see a conference for free you should walk in and announce you are covering the event for the *insert name of the conference here* blog. And act like you belong.

Just one last thing. As we all know, when it rains it pours, and today you can read not one, not two but three! posts written by yours truly:

• this one (duh)
• official Cradle to Cradle coverage: Let’s Cradle!
• Friday Linkfest – this is a good one

Enjoy!

Wal-Mart, Tesco roasted on Celsias

Hiya,

Just to let you know I have a new post on Celsias (a nice one, that even has those things, whatcha cal’em, opinions, yeah, and facts too, facts are cool.).

So if you are in the mood for a barbecue, head on over there and watch me roast some Mega-Corps.

And feel free to show your support with some diggs or reddits or stumbles and what have you 😉

World’s Largest Companies Exert Pressure on Supply Chains

Shameless plug

Just to let you know that the recycling guide  I wrote back in May got reposted on Celsias today. There are a few improvements and adaptations, including a new title. Stop by if you feel like revisiting it. If you liked this article and/or you are in a giving mood, give it a little boost on digg, reddit and stumble upon.

Celsias Linkfest

Just a little announcement. I am taking over the Friday Linkfest duties over at Celsias. If you enjoyed my linking, you can get a lot more of it every Friday from today onwards. This week’s linkfest covers a lot of corn, both good news and bad news, GMOs, cancer, dolphins and almonds. Even though the hardest thing is to tell the good news from the bad ones…

Trains Rule and Planes Drool

Flying sucks. Big time. Not convinced? Check out my awesome new post at Celsias for 10 great reasons why you should take the train. And the environment is not one of them, haha. Go on, you won’t be sorry. Even though sometimes (but not always) it might be more expensive, it is totally worth it, especially for shorter trips.

When you consider your options don’t forget to factor in the time it gets you to get to the airport, that you have to be there 1 or 2 hours early, that you will wait 1 hour for luggage and that you will need another hour to get to where you are going from the other airport. And transport to and from the airport, whether it is a taxi or a shuttle will sometimes cost more than the ticket itself.

So think about it. Is it really worth the global warming you would be causing? But that’s enough spoilers…. Go and read my post 😀

Photo borrowed from Ned Lyttelton on Flickr.

Good news and bad news

Bad news first-  Looks like the Brits are all about globally warming us all with their outdoor patio heaters… If you ask me, this has got to be one of the most absurd inventions ever created by man. “It’s a heater… for outside!” I mean COME ON! Apparently, smokers need to stay warm.

What’s the good news you might ask? Well, if you look carefully at this article in Celsias,  you might notice that its written by a certain someone that you may or may not know as the Closet Environmentalist 😀 That’s right! I got a job!!!

But worry not, I will not neglect the Closet Environmentalist… (Or at least not anymore than its already been neglected :D). So first of all, take a good look at Celsias because it’s a great site, and I’ll be sure to let you know when you can read some fab new posts by yours truly over there 😉